After the festivities of E3 I bought my wife a laptop. Originally we were debating if she should get a Macbook Pro or a super powerful gaming laptop; in the end....
The gaming laptop won.
More info: Asus G46VW
I've been spending a bit of time playing Grid 2 on this machine and I am unbelievably, madly in love with it. I want to take it away from my wife already. The PS3/Xbox 360 haven't been seeing any action thanks to this guy.
In the United States this laptop is seen as a mid-range gaming laptop. When you bring it over here to the good old third world, this thing is a monster. It plays Grid 2 on High settings at over 60 FPS (or more, if you turn off V-sync). The image quality is insane especially if you turn up the anti-aliasing. I'm just floored by what gaming PCs are capable of now...even more floored that more PCs like this aren't available here locally. In the US this thing is about 38k; it's really hard to find here in Manila and if you do find anything like a gaming laptop here it will cost nearly 100k.
It's crazy, really. When I was in LA I noticed most PC peripherals like hard drives, etc. seem similiar in price to their counterparts here. It's only when you look at their PC section that you'll be amazed at the selection. One thing that I wish local shops would have is a better range of PCs to choose from. In the Philippines most PCs for gaming are at the extremes---extremely low end computers for general office work, and extremely high end gaming rigs that only Jaime Zobel De Ayala's grandkids can afford. In the US they actually have laptops (like the one I bought) which I think any decent middle-class person can buy.
And 'gaming' is really its own category in the USA. Here in the Philippines everything is just 'computers' and this is probably why there's no real set of options to choose from if you want to go with PC gaming. Your only option is to bet the farm, sell your arm and leg...which really sucks, but I guess that's just the way it is.
So next time you go to the United States and have a bit of money to spend....buy a gaming laptop. You'll never find an affordable one here in Manila that's powerful enough to play major PC releases.
Will post my Grid 2 review shortly.
The gaming laptop won.
More info: Asus G46VW
I've been spending a bit of time playing Grid 2 on this machine and I am unbelievably, madly in love with it. I want to take it away from my wife already. The PS3/Xbox 360 haven't been seeing any action thanks to this guy.
In the United States this laptop is seen as a mid-range gaming laptop. When you bring it over here to the good old third world, this thing is a monster. It plays Grid 2 on High settings at over 60 FPS (or more, if you turn off V-sync). The image quality is insane especially if you turn up the anti-aliasing. I'm just floored by what gaming PCs are capable of now...even more floored that more PCs like this aren't available here locally. In the US this thing is about 38k; it's really hard to find here in Manila and if you do find anything like a gaming laptop here it will cost nearly 100k.
It's crazy, really. When I was in LA I noticed most PC peripherals like hard drives, etc. seem similiar in price to their counterparts here. It's only when you look at their PC section that you'll be amazed at the selection. One thing that I wish local shops would have is a better range of PCs to choose from. In the Philippines most PCs for gaming are at the extremes---extremely low end computers for general office work, and extremely high end gaming rigs that only Jaime Zobel De Ayala's grandkids can afford. In the US they actually have laptops (like the one I bought) which I think any decent middle-class person can buy.
And 'gaming' is really its own category in the USA. Here in the Philippines everything is just 'computers' and this is probably why there's no real set of options to choose from if you want to go with PC gaming. Your only option is to bet the farm, sell your arm and leg...which really sucks, but I guess that's just the way it is.
So next time you go to the United States and have a bit of money to spend....buy a gaming laptop. You'll never find an affordable one here in Manila that's powerful enough to play major PC releases.
Will post my Grid 2 review shortly.